Sports Writer for The Age

NO SWIMMER would again be singled out in a way that the likes of James Magnussen were perceived to have been prior to the London Olympic Games, national coach Leigh Nugent declared after the release of two damning reports into swimming on Tuesday.

The Swimming Australia-commissioned Bluestone review of the sport's leadership and culture found there had been a misuse of prescription drugs, incidents of drunkenness and breaching curfews, deceit and bullying.

In highlighting a ''toxic'' culture the report said there was a perception among team members that swimming officials were ''only interested in presenting the 'big boys and girls', the celebrity swimmers, to the media'' pointing to the team's main pre-Games press conference when 25 minutes of a 30-minute conference was spent talking about 100-metre freestyle world champion Magnussen or the chances of the 4 x 100 metres men's freestyle relay team, of which he was the mainstay.

''The glorification of a few was seen somewhere between embarrassing and irritating to the other team members and added to a growing notion that the rest of the athletes were not really valued,'' the report said.

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Nugent agreed on Tuesday that the way swimmers such as Magnussen, who was heavily criticised for his behaviour following his poor relay swim on the opening night, would change. He said while swimmers will still be ranked, and receive support, based on their performances, the future was ''about [being] one team''.

''I think everyone in our team and in fact our national program needs to be treated in a similar way,'' Nugent said.

The report also said Australian swimming's worst Olympics in two decades was undermined by a lack of moral authority and discipline which manifested in a ''schoolyard clamour for attention and influence''.

''Situations were left to bleed,'' the report said. ''… Swimmers described these Games as the lonely Olympics and the individual Olympics.''

Team member Kenrick Monk said he was not surprised that the team atmosphere at the London Games was labelled ''toxic'' and spoke of a lack of solidarity before and during the Games. He said it took a heavy toll on less-experienced athletes, who found themselves isolated on the biggest stage.

''It's not surprising that 'toxic' is getting used. There was a lot of faults and basically, a lot of things went wrong. A lot of things are getting fixed and it's opened a lot of eyes to people about what happened on the team,'' said Monk, who found himself in hot water before London by posing in a US gun shop with teammate Nick D'Arcy.

''Even leading into the staging camp [in Manchester], you could see a few things weren't happening and weren't the way they used to be. And then things got a lot worse. It's all on the report what's gone wrong. It's nearly the whole truth.''

Barclay Nettlefold, who replaced David Urquhart as Swimming Australia's president after London, said the governing body would establish an integrity panel to investigate the incidents, including claims some swimmers devised an initiation ritual involving the use of sleeping drug Stilnox. It would identify the culprits and within an expected 30 days hand down penalties, with the options including letters of warning, fines or bans from the national team.

''We don't know specifically what people were involved in certain behaviour that incurred during the journey of the London Olympics,'' Nettlefold said.

''Under the new regime we won't deliberate long. The integrity panel will be established immediately and within next 30 days we want full resolution to this so we can focus on the task at hand and that's getting ready for our trials for the world titles.''

A review commissioned by the Australian Sports Commission also released on Tuesday was critical of the way the Swimming Australia management and board operated in the lead-up to the Olympics and produced 35 recommendations to improve its governance. Kevin Neil and Urquhart both resigned as chief executive and president respectively after London.

Nettlefold said they were ''a long way down the track in regards to these recommendations''.